Process for the production of artificial fibers.



mwom.

WFTNESSES;

P. GIRARD & J. SONNERY.

PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF ARTIFICIAL FIBERS.

APPLICATIDN FILED FEB. 28. 1912.

Patented Dec. 14, 1915.

3 SHEETS-SHEET I.

. \NvENToRs, PAUL Gmnma JEAN SONNER y SWQMSWWWQ.

I P. GIRIARD & I. SONNERY. PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION or ARTIFICIALFIBERS. APPLICATION FILED FEB- 28.1912. ljfifiQ, Patented Dec. 14, 1915.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

\A/lTNESSES; INVENTQR5,

9%7 PAUL. GIRRRD JEAN 'SONNERY,

At'korney P. GIRARD & J. SONNERY-.

PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF ARTIFICIAL FIBERS.

APPLICATION FIIIED FEB. 28. 1912.

1,16%,04. Patented De0. 14,1915.

' 3' SHEETSSHEET 3.

T1 5 TBA mum;

WITNESSES; INVENTORS,

% PAUL G\RP\RD and; JEAN SONNERY,

Attovnelj To a; whom it may concern i- 5 lie eraser;

re it niewathaeweyr w GIRAn'D and JEAN SQNN'ERY', eitlzensof France,"res1d1ng at" Lyon, Department of Rhone, France,

have'invente'd a Process for the Production of Artificial Fibers, ofwhich the following is a specification. p v Up to the present in theartificial silk industry, attention has been confined to the productionof continuousthreads connected together by throwing and 'reassembling asclosely as possible natural silk. Artificial silkwaste has also beentreated in like man ner to schappe, reeling waste, and floss fromnatural silk, to make threads suitable for weaving. These two methodshave the drawback of being costly owing to the various manipulationsthey require. In the first case, the artificial 'silk filament beingfragile it was necessary to keep it somewhat coarse and it isnotindustrially possible to reel or throw threads the filaments of whichhave not a coarseness ofabove 6 or 7 deniers. This process thereforeyielded'only threads formed 'of filaments "averaging 6 to 10 deniers andabout 15in number. The value of the" thread'thus obtained was verysmall, since the value depends on the fineness of the filament whichshould not exceed 1-3 deniers in ;a 'threadtof superior quality;Moreover Ili frequently happens that the holes; of the formers"or-{nozzles "become clogged which causes breakage of the fila Inentsandoccasions great loss of time owing to the necessity of unclogging theformers the work being thus always irregularLf In the second case, thecarding and combing of the'filament's issuing from the former,whichoperations are necessary to give themfthe classification in counts andthe parallelismindispensable to theirtreatment in theordinary processesfor spinning schappe, constitute expensive manipulations whichhave thefurther drawback of giving much, waste and products of inferior quality.

In practice, by previously known processes which; yielded continuousthreads, there could beobtained 0nly' about20% of thread of firstquality, that is threads capable 1 of giving when woven a cloth withoutna r 4 he present, invention has "particularly for] object to effect themanufacture'of threads [formed f filaments the." general coarsenessofwhic isnot greater than that seats rarest VQFFJI "t i i etieeri dte si tn lPatentedDee 9 195155, ftflp p lieati'o filed rbhiai'yae, 1912i SerialN0. i

order to arrange the filaments parallel and of equal length and tosuccessively form fieeces, all of which is eliminated in the processforming the object of this invention, the machine for carrying out theprocess directly yielding the filaments and fleeces mutually parallel.It is obvious that under these conditions the drawbacks referred to inthe continuous spinning of irregularity in working owing to breakage ofthe thread, become of much less importance since the operation ofspinning will be effected as in the case of schappe.

Otherwise stated the process forming the object of the invention is tosome extent a mixed process, consisting in producing the thread by theprocess of continuous spincontain from 2,000 to 4,000 holes,'theartificial filaments are already mutually parallel and grouped inparallel fleeces, which are wound on bobbins or spools, of which thediameter depends on the thickness desired and are cut according to thelength which the fleeces and filaments are to be finally given. e

his to be noted that the previous circular formers used in the making ofartificial fibers contained only from 15 to about 25 holes and yielded athread constituted of the union of'only 15 to '25 filaments and endowedwith a regulating motion termed reciprocating which resulted in acrossing and not a superposing of parallel fleeces of parallel filamentsobtained without crossing.

When the amount 'of'filaments wound is considered suflicient, they areall out along one or more'generating lines of the spool, or bobbin,there is thus obtained a fleece formed of equal and parallel filamentsof length equal to the total or partial linear development of the spoolor bobbin and of breadth the height of the cylinder which they formedpreviously, or better, the breadth of the former. As these filaments aremutually parallel they can be sent to the drawing rollers withoutcombing or other process, and thence to the spinning frames Where theyare treated like cotton roving or slivers of silk.

The threads obtained after winding may be longer than and as fine ascotton threads While possessing the luster of artificial silk.

For the carrying out of the process hereinbefore set forth, it ispreferred "to use a machine as illustrated in the accompanying drawings,in which:

Figure 1 is a sectional elevation, on the line II of Fig. 2, of themachine. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of a group of parts forming oneunit of the machine. Fig. 3 is a detail view of the drive for thespools. Figs. 41: and 5 are partial views in front elevation and planrespectively of the same drawing mechanism. Fig. 6 is a front elevationof a filamentformer or nozzle. Figs. 7 and 8 are sectional views of twoconstructions of former, through the lines VIIVII and VIIIV1IIrespectively of Fig. 6. Fig. 9'

is an elevation of another construction of former, and Fig. 10 a sectionthrough XX of Fig. 9.

The same references denote the same parts in all the figures.

The viscous solution from which the filaments are made is contained in asuitable receiver 1 filled through the pipe 1 and connected by a pipe 2having a stock-cock 3 with a vessel d which supplies the solutionthrough pipes 5 to the various formers 6 disposed within a trough 7containing the coagulating liquid.

To force the viscous material in the receiver 1 to issue through theholes of-the formers 6, there is provided at 8 a connection to acompressed air supply so as to create above the free surface of thesolution a pressure sufiicient to attain the above mentioned object. Thefilaments issuing from the formers 6 form a lap 9, the number offilaments in the said fleece being as large as possible while theirthickness depends on the qualities which the textile to be produced hasto possess, it being of importance in practice to make the filaments asfine as possible. The filaments are then wound on a spool, such as 10combined with another spool 10 which may be substituted for the firstone, as far as the winding of the filaments is concerned, by means ofmechanism hereinafter described.

The number 01" pairs of spools such as 10 and 10 working alternativelydepends only on the requirements of the service and the arrangement ofthe departments of the factory, so that in practice the machine inquestion consists of a series of mechanisms similar to' the one shown inFigs. 1 and 2.

The spools are caused to rotate as follows. The spool 10 is mounted on aspindle 11 having a clutch sleeve 12 by means of which the spool 10canbe coupled at will to the spindlell. On this spindle is keyed a spurpinion 13 which can mesh with a spur wheel 14: on the main driving shaft15 which is rotated through the agency of any suitable transmission, forexample by the usual fast and loose pulley arrangement as at 16, 17

Similarly to the spool 10 the spool 10 is mounted on a spindle 11carrying a clutch sleeve 12 by which the said spool can be coupled atwill to the spindle 11 which likewise has keyed thereon a spur pinion 13which can engage with the spur wheel 14.

The mechanism according to the present invention enables a filled spoolto be easily replaced by an empty spool, which is eflected by thefollowing mechanism. The main frame of the machine carries a wheel 18having a handle, keyed on a spindle 19 actuating two sets of gear wheels20, 21, 22 and 20, 21, 22; the spur wheels 22 and 22 being similar andcapable of turning on a sleeve such as 23 (Figs. 1, 5) carrying arocking lever 24 supporting one end of the spindles 11 and .11 of thespools 10 and 10. Each-of the levers 2 1 has a groove or slot 25 in.which project pins 26 carried by each of the wheels 22. The sleeves 23are eccentric relatively to the main shaft 15, whereby their rotationallows a pinion 13 assoc ated with the spool to be filled to be put inmesh with the wheel and a pinion 13 associated with the filled spool tobe disengaged. The machine tender is thus enabled to easily effect thesubstitution of a filled spool by an empty spool without stopping theworking.

In Figs. 6 to 8 of the drawings there is shown in detail theconstruction of one of the formers 6 disposed in the trough 7 containingthe coagulating liquid, which formers receive through the pipes 5 theviscous solution from which the filaments are made.

A perforated plate 28 constituting the former proper is secured withinsertion of packing 27, between a screwed down cover 29 and thejointing face of the box or reservoir of each former 6, the cover havingopenings 80 suitably located to expose'the perforated portions of theplate 28.

In the case of Fig. 7 the perforated parts of the plate are dished so asto project above the cover 29, but a flat plate may be also used asshown in Fig. 8 and the openings 30 provided with suitably arrangedperforations 32, such that in every case the lap of filaments issuingfrom the former is regular and unbroken. Further the tubes 31 can becombined with reservoirs as above by mounting the said tubes in openings30 in the cover 29 with provision of suitable packing. The tubes 31 maybe of any section, oval, square, triangular or other, and theperforations made on the most suitable face of the tubes.

As stated in the description of the improved process when the amount offilaments wound on the spool is deemed suflicient, the

filaments are cut through along on'eor more lines of the spool. Withthis in View the spools l0 and 10' are provided on their periphery withone or more slits or grooves, such as e and 0 parallel to the spindlesl1 and 11 to allow the insertion of a blade for cutting through thefilaments when the thickness of winding is sufiicient.

' In the machine above described the fleeces of filaments may be cut inequal lengths, on the spools themselves, but it is also possible and insome cases desirable not to cut through the filaments on the cylinders.Such is the case for example when the threads wound on the cylindershaveto undergo before combing or spinning various operations such aspurification from sulfur, bleaching etc., effected in a liquid,

Water for example, it being important in 7 order not to impair theparallelism of the filaments, to keep the'skeins whole and uncut untilthe final drying at the end of the above mentioned operations. Theseoperations may be carried out by methods similar to those in common usein dyeing skeins by means of the dyeing box, dyeing poles, stirringdevices, etc. In this case, the cutting of the filaments is theneffected by means of a cutter orshears, at one point of the skeins or atseveral other points, after the said skein has been suitably stretched.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the saidinvention and in what manner it is to be performed we claim as ourinvention: 7

1. A process for obtaining artificial fibers, the said processconsisting in produclng, by means of nozzles arranged in coagulationbaths, very fine filaments all mutually parallel and constitutingparallel superposed fleeces; winding these parallel filaments by groups,on spools of suitable diameter; cutting the said groups of filamentsalong generating lines of the spools; passing the fleeces of parellelfilaments thus obtained directly to the drawing rollers of spinningframes; and spinning these fleeces into filaments suitable for weaving.

2. A process for obtaining artificial fibers, consisting in exerting airpressure upon the free surface of a viscous material in a feedingreservoir having nozzles, thereby forcing material from said nozzles;producing by means of said nozzles arranged in a coagulating bath veryfine all mutually parallel vfilaments constituting parallel superposedfleeces; winding said eces on spools receiving a continuous rotarymotion; providing bobbins for the filaments; substituting, withouthalting the manufacture, for the bobbin provided with filaments, asecond empty bobbin for winding the said filaments; cut.- ting the saidgroup of filaments along generating lines of the spool; passing thefleeces of parallel filaments thus obtained directly to the drawingrollers of spinning frames; and spinning these fleeces into filamentssuitable for weaving.

3. A process for obtaining artificial fibers, consisting in producing,by means of nozzles arranged in coagulation baths, very fine filamentsall mutually parallel, having the same length and thickness andconstituting parallel superposed fleeces; winding these parallelfilaments by groups, on spools of suitable diameter, provided withgrooves on theirperiphery and disposed along generating lines of thesaid spools; cutting the said groups of filaments along one or more ofthe said grooves; passing the fleeces of parallel filaments, thusobtained, directly to the drawing rollers of spinning frames; andspinning these fleeces into filaments suitable for weaving.

In testimony whereof, we have signed our names to this specification inthe presence of two subscribing witnesses.

PAUL GIRARD. JEAN SONNERY. Witnesses:

MARIN VAGHON, MARIUS HERMAZ.

